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Luc’s hand cupped the back of my neck, and he brushed another kiss over my lips. My fingers curled with desire for him, for tasting more of him. But we needed to get this figured out, so I didn’t grab the black Henley that stretched tightly across his impressive chest. Too soon, he released me then left the kitchen to meet Max in the office.
“So,” Lil said with a grin. “Happy?”
“Yeah.” I matched her expression, shaking the last of the haze away. I helped myself to some waffles and loaded them with strawberries and whipped cream, forgoing the syrup.
Nicole poured me a glass of orange juice and set a bottle of prenatal vitamins in front of me. “Trey dropped these off this morning. You’re supposed to take two a day with food.”
I murmured around a mouthful then shook two out and into the palm of my hand. After swallowing, I took the pills with a sip of orange juice, amazed I could get those suckers down without choking. “Any word on when I’ll see the doctor he mentioned?” I was nervous about the baby and wanted confirmation that everything was okay.
Nicole smiled and patted my hand. “The doctor will be by later this evening. She has appointments all day but agreed to come to the house after her last one. I’m guessing close to seven.”
“Thanks.” With that out of the way, I turned to El after shoveling a few more bites in. I was starving. “So what’s on the video?”
El scrunched her lips to the side for a second. “The video angle is from a hallway and through a cracked door. We can only see Ben on camera, but another man is talking. It’s a little hard to follow at first. Something about an eye for an eye, and the other person we can’t see tells him he wants the job done before the new year.”
“Oh, that’s soon.” We had three days until whatever Ben had planned would happen.
“Yep.” El got up just as I pushed my empty plate away. “It’ll take a while for them to fix the distortion from the rest of the video so that we can hear what else they said.” She stretched her arms over her head. “I’m going to go for a jog.”
“Wait.” I needed to do something. I would go nuts if I sat around until they got the recording fixed. From what I’d learned from the others, the property was heavily patrolled. “I’ll go with you. Not to jog, but for a walk.”
“Sounds good. I’ll walk with you and run when you head back inside.”
Lil wrapped her hands around her mug of coffee and shuddered. “It’s cold out. You two are crazy.”
I laughed because I agreed, but the need to stretch my legs won over my disdain for the weather. “Be back in a little while.”
Following El, I grabbed a warm coat, slid my feet into a pair of boots she gave me, then added a hat, scarf, and gloves. I wasn’t sure how long I would last, but it was better than nothing. I knew there was a gym in the house, and I would use that when I couldn’t handle the thought of being out in the cold. But I was still warm from everything Luc and I had done last night and again that morning.
We went around to the back of the house and slipped out the patio door. “We can walk on the trail that goes around the pond and through the woods. There’s an incline for part, but the rest is relatively easy.”
“And it’ll shield us from the wind.” I burrowed my face into the soft red scarf.
“There’s that too.” El laughed.
I matched my pace with her quicker one, enjoying the stretch to my leg muscles. I wouldn’t feel guilty if I curled up on the couch with a blanket and watched movies afterward, which is what I wanted to do while Luc was busy with the guys. Maybe the wives and Nicole would join me.
A gust of icy wind whipped through the open area, and I shivered. So much for being warm. El slowed her pace a little as our feet crunched over blades of grass coated in frost. “How cold is it out here?”
“It’s in the thirties. It’s not bad.” El laughed. “You’ll get used to it.”
“Doubtful. Maybe I won’t have to and everyone will decide to relocate to Georgia?”
She laughed harder, and I shook my head. I could dream…
We fell into a comfortable silence as we walked around the lake then turned to hike up the path leading into denser trees. The property was large, consisting of several acres. Once we reached the trees, the wind had died down, and the trees blocked a good portion of it. I relaxed my shoulders from hunching to cover my frozen ears.
El fell silent, and a volley of chills danced over me. Not from the cold, but because of how alert she suddenly seemed. Her gaze was fixed on something off to the left of us, and she slowed her pace. I did the same.
The only sound was the crunch of our boots on the pebbled path. It was eerie as well as beautiful. I kept expecting something to happen. And then it did.
“Shit.” El grabbed my arm and yanked me close as she turned us around the way we’d come. But it was too late. I’d seen what she had—a dead body. Two in fact.
A twig snapped. El whirled around again as pain exploded along the side of my head. I took a stuttered step to the right before arms wrapped around me and jerked me against a foul-smelling body. Cigars. My woozy mind sharpened. I knew that smell. Ben had found me.
El sprang into action, and somehow, he released me. I fell to the ground and crawled away from the sounds behind me. When I was far enough away, I gained my feet, intending to help so nothing happened to El. I hadn’t needed to. Her gun was out, and he was in a heap at her feet. I looked down, expecting to see blood. Instead, there was a large bruise forming at his temple.
“Call the guys,” she ordered.
